Be gender sensitive, HC judge to boys

Punjab and Haryana high court judge Jaswant Singh has said young boys should grow up as better citizens by being more gender sensitive and respectful towards girls and elderly in society.

Justice Jaswant Singh was addressing students at Tagore auditorium in Maharshi Dayanand University on the annual day function of local model schools (main branch and Sector 4) here on Sunday.

Giving his own example, Singh said he had spent a decade during his formative years in this school and feels students, teachers and parents have an equal role in shaping students' career and creating a responsible society.

On students' role, he said they should break their long-term goal into smaller objectives and achieve small goals with dedication and sincerity. "Students should be regular in class as it will help them gain clarity of thoughts enabling them to understand their capabilities in a better way. A student should ensure to spend some time every day on introspection besides giving time to studies for discovering true image of self and adjust dreams, if need be," the HC judge said.

He said students should limit the use of technology as its excessive use is not good. On the role of teachers, he said they should have participative nature while teaching to develop trust among students and they should not only focus on frontbenchers and intelligent students but also pay equal attention to back-benchers. He said parents should try to spend more time with children and strive to become good companions.

Taking a serious note of child abuse in country, he said it is the responsibility of parents to observe changes in their wards' behaviour and should pay attention to children in 6 to 12 year age group. Parents should not force child do a thing but rather behave as guides, mentors and friends to get the things done.

Referring to the rise in crime against women indirectly, he said while young boys should become more responsible and respectful, girls should also not forget where they come from and what culture they belong to and should follow tradition with modernity and make an ideal mix in society.

Deputy commissioner and chairperson of model school Amit Aggarwal, district and sessions judge Subhash Goyal, SP Rajesh Duggal and others were also present on the occasion.